The rumored trade that would reportedly send Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers is in jeopardy after owners voiced their complaints to the league, according to a report on Thursday night. As a result, the NBA is reportedly pressuring New Orleans Hornets general manager Dell Demps to nix the trade. The whole situation just took a turn for the weird.
The news comes from Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Owners were irate in Board of Governors meeting with Stern, livid that the league-owned Hornets were allowed to make Paul deal, sources say. The NBA is now pushing New Orleans GM Dell Demps to pull the plug on the trade and keep Chris Paul, league sources tell Y! Sports.
Interestingly enough, our own Tom Ziller wrote about how any potential Chris Paul trade could be a nightmare for the league earlier this week. One of the points had to do with small-market teams and business as usual in the NBA.
And as soon as the NBA return to business, it's business as usual, with a small-market club being cajoled into trading its best player, its raison d'etre for the past six seasons. And not only will it be business as usual, but it will be David Stern, the man who caved on all of those deal points that the small-market owners so desperately wanted, signing off on the deal.
And so here we are, with a reported standoff between the league, the Hornets and angry owners. You didn't think a blockbuster trade involving CP3 would be so simple, did you?
For more on the Hornets, visit At the Hive. For more on the Lakers, visit SB Nation Los Angeles and Silver Screen and Roll. For more on the Rockets, visit The Dream Shake and SB Nation Houston.